Throughout the years, fast food is becoming more and more of an outlet for many people that are short on change, in a rush but still need to grab a bite to eat, or even who are just too lazy to cook a meal. Fast food is very cheap, yet when we eat it we don’t necessarily realize the price we pay when we are starting to gain weight. Who is to blame? The person that is addicted to fast food, or the fast food restaurants? I agree fast food is cheap, yet delicious. I understand that it may get addicting, I do not believe that it is the restaurants fault for your lack of self-control. Eating fast food all the time can put you up against some major health risks. As claimed by, “Fast Food and Obesity,” Every 4 out of 10 adults in the USA will …show more content…
As the fast food world spread across the nation, obesity was shortly following in its footsteps. According to, “The History of the Fast Food Industry,” Since 1970 the amount of fast food restaurants have doubled, which equates to roughly 300,000 establishments in the United States. Ironically, 33.8% of the U.S. population is affected by obesity and 19% of children and young adults are also affected.
Now days, you can find a fast food restaurant every time you turn a corner. According to, Sarah Muntel, the Author of “Fast Food- Is It the Enemy,” you can choose from a variety of things to eat. You can get a greasy burger, crunchy tacos, or a drink that is filled with sugar. Why should we take the time go buy and prepare a meal when there are a variety of foods all around you? That is the problem that we are facing. Fast food is extremely cheap. You can order dollar cheeseburgers, dollar sodas, and you can even make those orders supersized just with pennies. People even claim that it is cheaper to eat at a restaurant than it is to prepare a meal in your own kitchen. Most Americans now days are having overscheduled and overcommitted jobs, which means that there is no free time in their daily lives to prepare their own meals. There is not anything easier than just going through the drive thru at your favorite fast food restaurant on your way home from work, or taking your child out for a milkshake if they do well in their baseball game. The problem is, people don’t look
Fast food restaurants are convenient if you are on the road and get hungry and you need a quick meal. The service at a fast food restaurant is quicker than making a homemade meal at the house. Fast food can give people more time to do important tasks that they need to do. Fast food restaurants also have a separate play area where kids can run around and play on the slide or swing and just have fun while wait on the meal. Many people buy fast food because it’s cheaper. Some people think that fast foods are convenient because they dislike cooking. Younger people who are single eat more fast foods than older people and married couples just for the convenience of it. For years fast food was considered a poor people’s food. The drive-through was where people would go who could not afford the “good stuff”. The meals have since changed, introducing healthier meals and low calories.
Would you feed your children lard? The answer for most all of us is “No Way”. Most parents can safely say that they want healthy choices for their children and would never want to give them something that is bad for them. However, with many of the foods on fast food menus this is not far from the truth. We have all heard the statement that childhood obesity is on the rise, and has been for quite some time now. We have seen the heartbreaking stories of overweight children being bullied, made fun of, and even being subject to more diseases. According to the center for disease control the childhood obesity rate rose from 7% in 1980 to an unbelievable 20% in 2008 (CDC, 2011). Parents
The main point of fast food is to be fast, easy, and convenient- but sometimes we humans abuse of that option that was given to us. Yes, its true fast food is everywhere in every corner but we cannot blame the food chains for our decisions. Obesity is like a monster and we are feeding it, we stop on every school or work break to snack on some McDonalds, Wing Stop, and other fast restaurants that are in our path, the only issue with is that we consume it on a daily basis making it our routine and we end up putting our health at risk. A survey made by the college of agriculture, consumer and environmental science assures that 94 percent of people believed individuals are primarily or somewhat
Ultimately, obesity is sweeping the nation because of how easy it is to eat cheap and on the run from fast food restaurants. If Americans do not change their habits of eating with no physical activity the obesity rates will never decrease but only continue to steadily increase. Not only is fast food easily accessible but over the years serving sizes have increased two to five times (Miller,
Some wonder whether if the fast food industries should be held accountable for people’s obese attire and health, others say that it is the independent consumers’ responsibility. About 37% of American adults are obese and approximately 17% of children are reported obese as well. Researchers say about 3/4 of Americans will be obese by the year 2020, or maybe sooner (Muntel). It certainly does not seem to be slowing down, unless somehow fast food industries can find indigents to make their food a bit healthier or that people limit the amount of times they go to the restaurant and keep track of their eating habits.
Many studies have shown that obesity is not only around but it’s here to stay and it’s on the rise. In (the obesity blame game 2006) Lorraine Heller explained that “being overweight comes down to a simple balance: energy intake versus energy burned and a fundamental Change in lifestyle has resulted in the last part of the equation being increasingly ignored”. In today’s society many Americans want to have someone to blame, shoving bad food into one’s body at a fast food restaurant isn’t the peoples fault, it’s the fast food industries fault. Now that doesn’t sound right, now a days many people prefer to eat out in America people are always busy. When hungry and in a hurry there are many fast, convenient, and healthy items available. Many people who insist that fast-food chains are a main cause of obesity in America because there are a plethora of fast-food restaurants on every block with few healthy alternatives, are not looking at the whole picture. Mark Bittman stated “in 2010 the average American, regardless of weekly earnings, watched no less than an hour and a half of television per day. The time is there” (is junk food really cheaper?
Obesity has been a big issue in the United States for as long as one can remember. In the United States there has been an increase in obesity in adults and children due to fast food restaurants. It was between the 1950s and 1960s when fast food restaurants first opened their business. Obesity is the condition of being fat or overweight. Childhood obesity has doubled in children and quadrupled in the last thirty years (Adolescent and School Health). Eating fast food is bad and unhealthy; therefore some restaurants should be banned for good.
Obesity has become an epidemic in today’s society. Today around 50% of America is now considered to be over weight. Fast-food consumption has been a major contributor to the debate of the twenty-first century. Chapter thirteen, titled “Is Fast-Food the New Tobacco,” in the They Say I Say book, consists of authors discussing the debate of fast-food’s link to obesity. Authors debate the government’s effects on the fast-food industry, along with whether or not the fast-food industry is to blame for the rise in obesity throughout America. While some people blame the fast food industry for the rise in obesity, others believe it is a matter of personal responsibility to watch what someone eats and make sure they get the proper exercise.
Fast-food restaurants are very cheap and convenient way to get a quick meal and also in quick, convenient areas. Whether someone is in a hurry or just need something to eat, pulling through a drive through is very simple and a way to get food almost instantly. Obesity is a significant issue in the United States and having America plastered in fast-food chain restaurants does not help the fact, but we can not put them to blame. People need education on nutrition to learn what they need to eat and what they can enjoy in moderation. We also need many more healthy options in busy areas that also offer quick and simple meals at a reasonable price that give people the option to get a wholesome, nutritious meal.
It is up to their choice whether they want to change for the better, or not, but we are going to try to make them eat healthier the only choice they have. We may find fast food to be rather convenient for us to consume due to its quick, easy and cheap nature. In America, where fast food restaurants are on every corner, it seems like a no brainer to just stop by and grab a delicious meal. With a lot of scrumptious choices, you may end up being drawn into eating fast food on a daily basis. However, we all know fast food is not the healthiest of all choices, so why do most Americans still choose fast food over the healthier alternative? What many of us don’t think about when it comes to fast food are the after effects. Many of these may result in exorbitant health care expenses as well as many other consequences.Eating fast food can dramatically increase the chances of becoming obese. A whopping 35.7% of American adults develop obesity! Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination shows that two out of three adults as well as one out of three children are considered to be overweight or
In the book Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser writes about the fast food industry. Schlosser tells the story of J.R. Simplot, the man behind McDonald’s source for potatoes. He started his own business right out of the eighth grade, after dropping out. He started out small but eventually became one of the riches men in America. He owned then 160 acres of land to start off this business. He sold his potatoes to companies at first all natural. But he soon discovered that if you dry out the food it will keep for longer, more companies then bought from him. Then in the 1950's he found out about freezing them, and the method of frozen food. McDonald’s started buying and selling Simplot fries. The customers seemed to like it, they
Several studies have shown that the increase in fast food restaurants over the past few decades has resulted in a negative impact on the already outrageous obesity rate.According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the number of fast food restaurants over the past thirty years has tripled, which equates to about three hundred thousand establishments in the United States alone. During this time the number of children, ages six to nineteen classified as obese, has risen from five percent to seventeen percent. The percentage of adults classified as obese has risen from half to two-thirds the population. Although fast food restaurants may be a contributing factor to the increasing obesity rate in the United States, people are
Quick, delicious, and hot that’s all people think when they are getting fast food for them and their family so they went have to cook. You can get fast food almost on every corner of a street and on any continent you go to. Fast food is now starting to invade non fast food eater’s lives by offering so called health items on the menu. Fast food is everywhere and people don’t consider what’s in the fast food they eat. What it could do to our health and why you feel sluggish, and when I go will I get a rude employee because her boss was angry at her, how people gain weight and overweight people still eating fast food.
Today, the names of fast food and obesity are synonymous worldwide. Since the 1970s, the number of fast food restaurants in the US has doubled, corresponding to approximately 300,000 new chains (Egger and Boyd 23). Equally, there has been an exponential increase in the number of obese people over the same period, turning obesity into a public health problem in the US and most developed nations (Egger and Boyd 25). Hence, there is a strong correlation between fast food and the prevalence of obesity. Arguably, there are numerous reasons for the obesity epidemic; nonetheless, poor nutrition, large portions, and a high fat and caloric content typical of fast food make it a great precursor to obesity. Conversely, studies have proved that people, including Americans, can become obese without consuming fast food, and that there is a strong genetic factor that is linked to obesity.
People would rather spend their money on a cheap burger that tastes good compared to a burger that tastes just as good for six times the price. The great thing about fast food is that over these many years their products taste hasn’t changed. “The whole experience of buying fast food, has become so routine, so thoroughly unexceptional and mundane, that it is now taken for granted, like brushing your teeth or stopping for a red light.” Says Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation. Millions of people a day are buying fast food because it’s so convenient to get to. Today’s economy is also dropping and because of this going out to buy fast food has become easier to feed people’s families. Instead of a family going out to a restaurant to feed the family for 60 dollars, they can go to a fast food restaurant and spend about one third of that.